Strawberries, an angel, a dragonfly and a bee that might be a wasp

After not having any homegrown strawberries so far this year, and pretty much giving up on them, the recent heavy rainfall along with lots of sunshine has had berries ripening like crazy. I've been starting every day with fresh fruit for breakfast, which is a lovely treat.

This last week's been oddly enjoyable. The house is looking much better after it's ever-so-late-spring-clean, and hopefully I can keep it this way. Out in the garden everything's windswept and there're lots of plants leaning drunkenly over, me neglecting to stake them.

I made a couple of little changes to the angel fabric collage, not having been entirely satisfied with her face.

I outlined the eyes with thread and added a faint indication of a nose! This textile piece ended up being about 21 x 23cm, and it occurred to me that I might make a smaller version and use it to decorate a Christmas card. (Sorry to mention the 'Ch' word in June, but you have to think ahead when it comes to handmade goodies.) That thought led me to think about fabric gift tags, made like mini collages.

This was a quick attempt, to get a feel for what size of gift tag and how I'd make it. I also began making a smaller version of - not the angel - but the green and pink dragonfly design from a few days ago.

I've made the background and added some quilting lines, and have the dragonfly pieces cut out and ready to applique on. That'll keep me occupied tomorrow while listening to 'The Archers' omnibus, making it another Slow Stitch Sunday.

I've also started yet another project, which is silly, I know. Really, I should finish one thing before embarking on something else, but I like flitting between tasks. It keeps them interesting. After making that fabric leopard's head brooch a while back, I fancied making a bee brooch. Or it might turn out to look more wasp-like. Not sure yet. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Another week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

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